I am now in my 3rd and FINAL trimester!!! (Well, I guess I have been for a week, but I am just now posting)

All is well. I went to the DR today. I am measuring at 33 weeks, but she said that was no big deal because I measured big with my other kids too. Blood pressure was great and everything seems to be moving along as expected. Hopefully, Kurt will get Kyle’s new bed built in the next few weeks and we can start that transition. He is still staying in his “toddler” bed and not getting out.

The other night we were swimming and having dinner at MoMo and PoPo’s. We are not sure if it was the cashew Kyle ate or if he got bit by a bug while we were outside, but this is what happened to my sweet little boy.

We took him home and got him in an Aveeno bath. We had given him benadryl already and it wasn’t working. We then tried some ibuprofen. Nothing really seemed to help the little guy.

(Check out the swelling of those ears!)

His spirits were still up. He was sliding off our bed head first. (Look at his poor little body)

But we kept him awake until it started to go down some. Sunday morning he still had puffy eyes and a few spots, but by the evening, he was 100% back to normal. It was scary, but he is a tough kid. We will just have to keep our eye out for this in the future.

Today, Sydney started 1st grade!  On Sunday, our pastor and children’s pastor had the kids bring their backpacks to say a blessing over them for a great school year. We even let Kyle bring his!

We started our morning with brand new shoes she said today did not fit! So we had to wear tennis shoes instead. But then she came down and had a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and sausage.

Then, Samantha and I took her to school.

When we walked in, the principal greeted her by name, and she acted oh so modest!

We got to her class and she was pretty happy to be there with so many familiar faces.

Then tonight, we started soccer. Samantha had practice first, then Sydney.

Samantha had to eat dinner on the sidelines while Sydney practiced. (Kyle and Sydney ate before we left at 5)…welcome to our busy season.

Kyle and Samantha found ways to entertain themselves.

Sydney worked up a real sweat…

I absolutely LOVE this face! My little girl is growing up!

Monday starts a new school year for Sydney. She will be in 1st grade. MoMo took her and Samantha shopping for back to school clothes a couple of weeks ago.

She has her clothes all ready!

We went to meet her new teacher the other night. The kids had fun exploring the classroom. Sydney was very excited to see that some of her old friends from kindergarten were in her class.

I took the kids to the zoo the other day. Since this is Sydney’s last week at home, I have let her pick some things to do. This was one of them. But it was soo hot and we only stayed about 2 hours. I had to explain to her that the zoo does not close just because she is going back to school. We still have weekends to enjoy it!  The got to feed the giraffes and watch the lions being trained. Kyle was growling at the lions! Hilarious!

Then, as a family, we all went to the Museum of Science and Nature on Friday. I had went with the kids earlier in the summer, but we didn’t get to see it all before Kyle was ready for a nap. This day, we made it through the whole thing, plus Daddy was there. The kids enjoyed seeing dinosaur fossils, making big bubbles, and doing hands-on science tricks.

Our church had the annual Back to School Pancake breakfast for the teachers in our town.

We have done some last minute crafts….

We made some more homemade ice cream (for tonight at MoMo and PoPo’s) and brownies.

Last night while enjoying our bedtime snack of brownies, I commented on how the Baby Girl must enjoy them because she was kicking. Kyle came over to feel her kick.

This has been a great summer and starting Monday, I am going to be working in my classroom getting for teaching preschool and Samantha and Kyle will get to go to school with me!

Over the last week or 2, I have made a few dishes in the kitchen the kids have really enjoyed helping with.  We first made nachos. The kids got to put cheese all over the chips and add some chicken. We even ate them right there at the island.

Samantha was keeping an eye on them for us.

The boy loves guacamole like his mom!

Then, MoMo and PoPo are letting us borrow their ice cream maker. We made some homemade chocolate chip ice cream.

(Samantha scalding the milk)

They were keeping a close eye on the ice cream. They loved the whole process!

Kyle loved eating the ice.

The ice cream should look like mashed potatoes…It looks like we are on track for success!

Good consistency.

Now it is time to add the chocolate chips…

I think we added too much chocolate. ( And I didn’t think that was possible!)

Now off to the freezer for 4-5 hours

The perfect bedtime snack!

While that was chilling, we used our time to make cookie bars. (Basically cookie dough spread onto a pan instead of dropped by the spoonful on cookie sheets. Much faster and easier!)

Then, we made pizza a few nights ago…I was not pleased with this one though. The dough did not cook all the way.  If I were to do it again, I would bake the crust by itself for 10-12 minutes and then add toppings and bake it longer. The kids had fun constructing the pizza. I had to make a Totinos real quick and feed them dinner before we headed to softball and gymnastics.

Kyle pulled his chair over to the stove and got into the cookies from earlier in the week.

(I apologize for the length of this post in advance)

So Sydney has been asking me when she can go back to the gun range for the past couple months… She has not been out to shoot since her 5th birthday (Post here).  A friend of ours asked if I was busy Friday afternoon and since I didn’t have anything going on I figured it would be a good time to take Sydney before she starts back to school.  She did well her first time out over a year about but she really surprised me this time.  She got to shoot both a .22 pistol and a scoped .22 rifle – she preferred the rifle.  She started out shooting at a paper target at a slow pace – she shot a very tight group.  She then moved on to shooting clay pigeons we set up about 10 yards away.  She was breaking them with ease (she even shot the center out of one with 3 shots – then shot one dead center and didn’t break it at all – see pics below).  Then all of a sudden out of nowhere she started letting off rapid strings of fire shooting as fast or faster than I can shoot and keeping rounds on target.  Once she started this she was shooting much faster than I could reload the rifle for her.  I couldn’t believe it so I called our friend over to watch and he was amazed as well.  We had a steel knock down target and she wanted to shoot it – so I let her and she loved hearing the clang of the bullet striking the steel plate.  We also had a swinging target out for the adults to shoot and she said she wanted to try to shoot it while moving – so I put it in motion, walked back, turned the safety off and let her go.  The best time to shoot it is when it reaches the swing limit and stops for a split second to change direction – for the first two swings I said “SHOOT”.  She was shooting exactly when I was saying Shoot – then she told me to be quiet….for the next 8 rounds she fired at the precise moment she had the best sight picture on the moving target.  I was floored – 1/2 of the monthly IDPA shooters cant time that right and she did it her first time on it.  After an hour I asked if she was ready to go home..she said no..in fact she never did want to leave but I only brought 400 rounds of .22 and I think she shot 350 of them…

The next day Sam and Mommy had their lunch date.  Once Kyle went down for a nap Sydney started asking me to get out my pellet gun so we could go shoot on the side of the house.  I had taken her to the side of the house and shot at cans about a year ago and she remembered that.  I had to tell her “No, maybe another time”.  Then that night we went to MoMo and PoPo’s house for some swimming and dinner.  Sydney finished dinner and was getting restless – she turned to me and said “Dad, if you had your pellet gun I could be shooting right now.”  —— I think I have created a monster…

Watch the orange clays under the target stand.

All I did was help support the back of the rifle, she aimed it wherever she wanted it to go.

Today, just Mommy and Samantha went on a date.  I spend so much time with Sydney on our early morning walks and playing softball in the backyard. Kyle gets a ton of attention just because he is still the baby. So I wanted Samantha to have her own time as well.

We started our day with lunch at the Purple Cow in Dallas.

Then we did some shopping at some local shops close by.

***I am aware that Samantha is shifty-eyed in most of these pictures. She will look away from the camera at the last minute. I don’t know why…

Then we stopped for dessert at this restaurant.

They had some delicious looking cupcakes, cookies, and cakeballs. Samantha chose a cookie and I went with a red velvet cupcake they call the Scarlet O’Hara.

Then, we stopped by the Galleria to play. It is one of the kids favorite places to go and play. My camera did not take good pictures in here AT ALL!

We finished off with some shopping at Target and finished our night with the rest of the family at MoMo and PoPo’s. The kids had fun jumping in the pool.

(Kyle is telling Kurt to go to the ladder. He is so much like Sydney!)

Flashback to 2005: I think she was kicking PoPo out of the pool for taking her goggles!

And we enjoyed a dinner of spaghetti and homemade meatballs! What a day! And what a blessing all of our kids are to us!

(Do you remember that Peyton Manning commercial? He has been rockin the same hairstyle since he was like 5. He keeps it high and tight)

Kurt has been on me for awhile about getting Kyle’s haircut. I just wasn’t ready. I liked the way it looked

But today, I broke down and took him to CoolCuts 4Kids. It is overpriced for a kid haircut, but he got to sit in a car and be entertained.  He did great!

He talked throughout most of the haircut and pointed to things he saw in the store.

It really changes his look, I think. It makes him look older.  But I do love it and I think he liked it too!

Every summer, my friend Jenny, likes to host a playdate for some of us at her house. This year, we moved it to my house because we thought Julie, her little one might be sick. So we had Alissa, her 3 boys, Marla, her 2 girls, Jenny and Jenna, and my crew for a playdate.

Kurt was nice enough to set-up the water slide for the kids. Most of them loved it!

Some enjoyed the alligator pool and slides.

Then, we came in for snowcones.

Kyle spilled 2 snowcones in about 2 minutes, so he was cut-off. He showed me by getting the bottle of syrup and drinking straight from that.

Parker wanted him to share!

We even had some sweet babies to enjoy.

It was a great day and I had a great time hanging out with my friends and their sweet kids.

If you have talked to me at all in the last 4 or 5 days, you know that I have been a little nervous about Sydney’s upcoming softball practice/season. We have been talking about signing her up for a year or so, so finally this season, it happened! We are starting her in fast pitch, not tball. This has made me nervous, especially after talking with the coach.  He is a very nice guy and seems to really know what he is talking about, but he also made me feel like all of these girls were all-stars and I just didn’t know how Sydney would measure up. I didn’t want her stepping onto a team where everyone was so much more advanced that she hated it. So we have been practicing (remember Samantha’s black eye?)

And Kyle is trying to get into the action. This boy loves sports. He has really enjoyed getting to throw the ball and swing a bat!

Tonight, we had our first practice.

Sydney did REALLY well. She listened and worked hard. She could actually hit the ball really well for someone with NO experience.

At the end of the night (it was a 2 hour practice), she said she had fun. She felt pretty good about the way she played. She is wanting to go to the batting cages sometime and practice more. I am glad she enjoyed it. Now, we get to see how well we manage this with 2 in soccer as well!